Jerome Wetzel is the Chief Television Critic for Seat42F and a regular contributing reviewer on Blogcritics. He also appears on The Good, The Bad, and the Geeky podcast and Let's Talk TV With Barbara Barnett.

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Sunday, August 3, 2014

MANHATTAN Ignites

Article originally written for Seat42F.

WGN America is making huge plays these days to elevate
itself from ‘superstation’ to full-fledged cable network, including creating
their own content. Their first original drama, Salem, is good. Their second,
MANHATTAN, which premiered last night, is even better.

Set in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which was unnamed in the
1940s when this story takes place, the series dramatizes the invention of the
atomic bomb, with a focus on those who helped design and formulate it, as well
as their families. A highly secretive project, the men and women employed by
the U.S. government at this isolated site were among the best and the
brightest. Their spouses often were not, and were not even trusted with knowing
what the employees were desperately working on, racing against Germany to end
the war.

MANHATTAN is besieged by the ticking clock. The Americans
believed that Hitler was also working on the bomb-to-end-all-bombs, and that he
was close to finishing it. Thus, they are spurred on not only by patriotism,
which nearly all of them possess in spades, but also by the fear of the
consequences should they lose the race. As one character muses when his
daughter wants to go to college in New York, to paraphrase, ‘A densely
populated city on the East Coast? No way.’

The pilot, “You Always Hurt the One You Love,” introduces us
to a lot of characters, but thankfully, it keeps the core cast small enough to
handle. There’s: Frank Winter (John Benjamin Hickey, The Big C), a brilliant
scientist leading a small team competing with Akley’s (David Harbour, The
Newsroom) much bigger, more well-funded one; Frank’s wife, Liza (Olivia
Williams, Dollhouse), a botanist with a PhD who isn’t allowed to plant crops in
the complex; new recruit Charlie Isaacs (Ashley Zukerman, Rush), who is
physically nauseated when the purpose of the place is revealed; and Charlie’s
wife, Abby (Rachel Brosnahan, House of Cards), who wants to go home, and will
likely get Charlie into trouble.

These four are surrounded by a large group of wonderful
players, including Daniel Stern (Home Alone, City Slickers), Josh Cooke
(Dexter), Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones), Eddie Shin (Men of a Certain Age), Michael
Chernus (Orange is the New Black), Christopher Denham (Argo), Katja Herbers
Alexia Fast (Jack Reacher), Richard Schiff (The West Wing), and Mark Moses (Mad
Men), but keeping these two couples at the core helps ground the narrative.

Many issues are brought up and dealt with in MANHATTAN, even
when just considering the pilot. There’s the military state, security that may
be over the top or could be construed as necessary, depending on your
perspective. There’s the political nature of the hierarchy, as Frank finds out
when he approaches Oppenheimer (Daniel London, Mildred Pierce) with a better
idea than Ackley’s, but is shot down anyway. There is the splintering of
marriage when trust is broken, mainly because of the constraints of the job.
There is the constant threat that even the best intentions could get one into
serious trouble, and rumors and gossip spread quickly. There is the challenge
of living in a new environment in the middle of nowhere, a major stressor on
those who aren’t in the office at all hours.

Yet, despite the extremely full hour-plus running time,
MANHATTAN is not overwhelming. Instead, it presents a complex structure with
interesting topics and people, an authentic-seeming look at an important part
of history. The moral quandaries of The Manhattan Project are still debated
today, so MANHATTAN, besides being an entertaining drama, is also a way for
modern people to sort out mixed feelings about it, and also get some historical
perspective. I find myself thoroughly engrossed and excited about this series.